Ratchet's Human
by Lynn Jones
Summary: TF:Prime. The Autobots have a habit of picking up human friends. First Arcee, then Bumblebee, then Bulkhead...now it's Ratchet's turn. And his human is...Lexi Bruner, mechanic.
1. Chapter 1

**I've been watching some TF:Prime recently, and it struck me that Ratchet is the only Autobot that doesn't have a human partner. Bee has Raf, Arcee has Jack, and Bulkhead has Miko. I kind of count Fowler as Prime's. Don't ask why; I'm not even sure. Anyway, I thought Ratchet should have a human partner. And voila! Lexi Bruner came into being!**

Chapter 1: The Ambulance

Tires skidded. Brakes squealed. Glass shattered. Something exploded.

Lexi Bruner winced at the noise and dropped the torque wrench she'd been using. Then she cursed under her breath; that torque was expensive! She picked it up and carefully put it on a nearby workbench before rushing to the bay door of her garage and staring. A helicopter, sleek, black, menacing, and strangely built, soared over her double-bay garage. It left behind an ambulance laying on its side, windows shattered, frame twisted, and probably all passengers dead. Lexi pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed 911 as she dashed over to where the vehicle lay.

Something vaguely resembling a moan of pain echoed from the cab. Lexi approached slowly, dreading what she might see.

The cab was totally empty. Lexi wasn't completely sure, but she thought ambulances were supposed to have drivers to get twenty miles outside Jasper.

"What in the world…?"

"911, what is your emergency?" intoned a woman's voice from Lexi's cell phone.

"Uh, an ambulance just totally wrecked itself in front of my garage," she answered hesitantly.

"And just where is you garage?"

"Twenty miles outside Jasper, Nevada." Lexi listed her address (her small home was adjacent to the garage) and the 911 operative asked what the condition of the driver was. "Um, I don't actually see any signs that there was a driver. It's like the whole thing just dropped here, empty," she said.

"Did you check the back?" the woman on the other end asked.

"No, hang on a sec." Lexi managed to wrench open the back doors, noting the blackened area near the gas tank and the odd blue fluid that was spreading over the road, apparently from the numerous tears and punctures in the vehicle's body. "The back's empty, just like the cab," she reported.

_Okay, this is getting really weird,_ she thought. _Freaky chopper, equally freaky and possibly totaled ambulance…it just doesn't add up._

"So…no one was hurt?" The woman sounded irritated now, like I was pulling a prank on her or something.

"I…I guess not. Uh…sorry to bother you," Lexi added, then hung up. She frowned at the vehicle, then went back inside and fetched her wrench to finish torqueing the lugs on the Saturn she'd been working on. She figured someone would come for the wrecked ambulance, but it was still there when the Saturn's owner picked it up, and it was still there when Lexi closed up the garage for the day and went into her house to microwave dinner for herself.

The next morning, when she glanced out the window, she didn't see the ambulance beside the road.

_Weird. Did it get picked up last night sometime?_ She wondered. _Oh, well, it's Saturday; time to take inventory._ Lexi kept some standard parts in the garage: caps, clamps, wires, a couple splicing ends, that sort of thing. And Lexi hated keeping track of what she used, so every Saturday morning she just took a quick inventory of what she still had to see if she needed to order anything.

When she flicked on the light in the garage, though, her plans for the morning skipped right out of her head and out through the window. The same beat-up ambulance was _in her garage._ And it was leaking blue fluid _all over her garage._

_AND IT WAS IN HER GARAGE!_

And then, to make matters worse and solidify her growing suspicion that she was going insane, the ambulance actually _talked_ to her!

"Well? You fix cars, don't you? Fix me!" it ordered. Lexi decided she needed to stop staying up so late on Friday nights, and skip her hot chocolate before bed, because it was starting to give her strange dreams.

**Well, that's that. Please feel free to review! Fair warning, I don't care for flames except when I want to roast marshmellows, so please don't flood my reviews page with them.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Hooray! Thank you to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1!**

**I still don't own anyone in this story but Lexi.**

Chapter 2: Dreaming

"And could you hurry it up? I'm leaking like crazy!" the ambulance added grumpily.

"Excuse me; I think I'm hallucinating…or hearing things…or something," Lexi said faintly. _Talking ambulance…talking ambulance? _

"Of course you aren't! You're perfectly fine! Now fix me! I'm stuck like this, and my internal repair systems are offline!" it grouched at her. Lexi shook her hear in amazement. She figured she'd just do what she could right now, and hoped she'd forget this crazy dream after she woke up. _Because I must be dreaming,_ she thought, slapping a patch on a pipe that was leaking weird, sparking blue stuff, _because cars just don't talk. They just don't._

"Hey! Be gentle there! I'm not as young as I used to be!" the ambulance snapped. Lexi sighed and kept working. She really hoped she'd wake up soon.

Around noon, she left her garage to get something to eat and order some major engine parts, and maybe some frame or body pieces…and windows. Definitely windows. She clicked "overnight shipping" on everything, because her impossible talking ambulance insisted this was "a life or death situation", that he had "a virus in his comm system", which was "jamming him", so he "couldn't contact his team".

And he'd said something about spiders…or maybe ticks…some kind of arachnid, anyway. But the most amazing thing wasn't the fact that he talked…when she mentioned getting him onto her lift so she could take a look at the underside, he obligingly rolled forward until she could position the lift arms on undamaged portions of his frame. _What an odd car, even for a dream,_ she though. Then she heard a helicopter outside. Dreading a reappearance of the lethal black chopper from the crash, Lexi cautiously left the ambulance and made her way out of the garage. A brown military-style chopper had landed on the road. She waited, hands on hips, as the rotors slowed, then stopped, and a heavyset dark man climbed out of the cockpit.

"Are you Alexandra Bruner?" he demanded, frowning. Lexi frowned back, eyeing his fancy suit. She knew what he saw of her in her current attire, different as it was from abovementioned fancy suit. He saw her messy red ponytail, her grease-and-blue-mystery-fluid-covered hands, her oil-stained T-shirt and jeans, and the ratchet with the inch-and-a-half head she held in her right hand.

"Yep, that's me. Your whirlybird run out of gas?" Lexi asked conversationally.

"Did you call 911 yesterday?" he countered.

"I imagine a lot of people did. What's so special about that?" The woman replied.

"You reported an ambulance wreck with no people," the man stated.

"So?" Lexi tried to appear unconcerned, but this guy was giving her the creeps.

"So, where's the ambulance?" he demanded.

"So, where's your I.D.? So, what right do you have to be here, on my private property, asking me questions?" Lexi demanded in return.

"I'm Special Agent Fowler –"

"Okay, lovely for you, S.A.F.; now get off my property. NOW," she ordered. He pulled out an official-looking badge.

"Now, ma'am –"

"Saf. Off. Now." Lexi snapped, brandishing her ratchet. Fowler's frown deepened.

"Now, ma'am," he tried again. This time, it was the ambulance, behind one of the garage's bay doors, which was closed, who cut S.A.F. off.

"Shut up out there and let her get back to work!" the ambulance bellowed. Fowler jumped.

"Ratchet?" he called uncertainly. Lexi scowled.

"That's what I'm about to club you with in about two seconds!" she threatened.

"Get rid of him! I'm leaking energon again!" the ambulance shouted.

"If you'll excuse me, Saf, I'm having the weirdest dream right now, so go away," Lexi told him. Then she spun on her heel and marched back into the garage through the open bay door, then into the ambulance's bay.

No sooner had she patched another blue-fluid leak (he called it…energon?) then she realized Saf had followed her into the garage.

"Thanks. Now get rid of Fowler!" the ambulance added crankily.

"I tried!" Lexi protested.

"Ratchet, what are you doing here? Why haven't you contacted the base?" Saf demanded.

"Oh, go away! While _she_ fixes me, I a virus jamming my comm system to purge! Shoo!" the ambulance shouted. Fowler didn't 'shoo'.

"Get off my property, or so help me, you'll need as many patches as Ratchet!" Lexi snarled. Fowler glanced at the ambulance, saw the vehicle held together mostly by patches and the temporary welds the ambulance – Ratchet – had insisted she use instead of simply replacing the damaged pieces of the vehicle's body, and swallowed uncomfortably.

"Prime can get along without me for a while," Ratchet added. Fowler scowled fiercely, but he left. "Oh, and Lexi?" The mechanic jumped; how had he known her nickname?

"Yeah…Ratchet?"

"Don't be too quick about those repairs, ok? I haven't had a vacation in eons!"

"…_Eons?_ I must be dreaming," Lexi muttered.

"Oh, this is no dream, Lexi. It's real." Honestly, she didn't believe him.

And how and when had she reached the conlusion that her ambulance had a gender, let alone that it was a "him"? His voice was masculine. And since this was her dream, well, it was _her_ dream, and her talking ambulance was a he.

**Well, that's chapter 2! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed chapter one, and to everyone: keep reviewing!**

**Also, check out my blog, Emily's Voice, at .com **


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow! I had no idea this would be such a huge hit! Thanks to everyone who's left such nice reviews! Originally, this was a four-chapter fanfic when I wrote it out in a spare notebook, but now I'm thinking I'm going to expand the story. Let me know what you think. Suggestions are welcome!**

**Disclaimer: I only own my OC. That is, Lexi.**

Chapter 3: More Visitors

Lexi blinked and stretched, happy to be awake at last. That had been a weird dream, not her usual type of dream at all. Usually, she dreamed about normal things: her work, her family, that kind of thing. But that…a talking ambulance? That was really weird. Anyway, it ought to be Saturday, time for her weekly… inventory…

The clock beside her bed read 8:30…on November 20th…8:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 20th. Oh, boy. Did that mean…?

Lexi sighed and pushed the issue to the back of her mind. It didn't matter. This happened sometimes, where she had a particularly vivid dream and it overshadowed the real events of the day before. She sighed again and left her room and her alarm clock for the small kitchen. She fixed herself the last egg and some toast, and then showered. She dressed in khaki slacks and a peach-colored blouse. Her Malibu – rescued from a customer who hadn't wanted to pay to have it fixed and instead had elected to buy a new car, which was really stupid in Lexi's opinion, as the Malibu had only taken a few days and a cheap part to fix – needed gas, so she made a pit stop to fill up the tank on her way into Jasper.

Church started at 9:00 and ended at 10:00. This was followed by a trip to the Jasper grocery store and fast food for lunch, where a dark-haired teenage boy handed her order to her and accepted her debit card like he'd half-expected her to drive off without paying.

No sooner had Lexi gotten home and unloaded her two week's worth of groceries than the parts delivery van pulled into her driveway. She signed off on the shipment and the deliveryman, Josh, who always delivered her parts orders, helped her carry everything into the garage, where the battered ambulance was waiting forlornly.

"That thing's really been through the wringer," he commented. "I think that's the worst-off car you've ever had." Lexi grinned.

"You don't know the half of it," she agreed cheerfully. "But give me a week, and I'll have it back on its own tires and driving under its own power again." Josh grinned back as he set down a particularly heavy box.

"Is that what's in here? Tires and a new engine?" he asked, patting the top of the box. Lexi laughed and waved that away. Josh left, his delivery van roaring unhappily as he pulled out. She shook her head, making a mental note to offer to take a look at the van the next time Josh brought her a shipment.

"Where have you been?" the ambulance demanded, frightening Lexi out of her thoughts. She jumped.

"I thought you were just a figment of my imagination," she muttered, glaring at the grumpy rescue vehicle. It shuddered slightly, and she got the impression it was laughing at her.

"Close, but not quite. I'm an alien robot from another planet. I'm only disguising myself as an ambulance so people don't notice me," he informed her. She couldn't tell if he was joking or not. That thought brought her up short. She shook her head again, this time at herself. Here she was, a normally sane person, and she was wondering if the wonderful talking car in her garage was joking or not when he told her he was an alien.

"I was running errands in town," she told him, answering his question. She realized with a sinking feeling that the whole thing hadn't been a dream after all, because here was the grouchy ambulance…and there was the load of parts for it that she'd ordered…and she was certain she was awake. Just to make sure, though, she went to her wash station and splashed icy cold water on her face. She could feel the water. It was cold, as always. And she wasn't imagining it…she was fairly sure, anyway.

This revelation was punctuated by the sound of a motor outside. Motorcycle, a really expensive one, she thought. Or maybe just another alien vehicle, she added wryly with a glance at Ratchet the Talking Ambulance from Another Planet. Frowning slightly to herself, Lexi headed out to see a blue motorcycle with pink highlights in her driveway…no, make that in front of her garage. A teenage boy – the one from the fast food restaurant earlier, she realized with a jolt – was just getting off.

"Nice bike. Can I help you?" she called as he placed his helmet on the bike's handlebars.

"I don't know. You're Alexandra Bruner, right?" Lexi nodded warily. For some reason, this was reminding her of S.A.F.'s visit the day before. "Could I talk to you?"

"I go by Lexi. And you're talking to me now, aren't you?" the mechanic pointed out. "I don't care. Lean your bike against the garage while we talk. Just be ready to get her going quick when I throw you out," she warned. The boy gulped and walked the bike up to the garage.

"Um, a friend of mine was driving past, and he said you had a really beat-up ambulance in your shop. I was kind of worried because –"

"You mean S.A.F.? He wasn't 'driving,' he came in a helicopter, and he wasn't going 'past,' he landed on the street and _tres_passed," Lexi snapped. The boy flinched.

"Saf?" he repeated.

"Special Agent Fowler, he called himself," she clarified. The boy's eyes widened.

"Uh…" A series of metallic sounds, like gears shifting, made me glance toward the place where he'd left his bike. It was gone. Lexi sighed, turned around, and headed for her garage. It sounded like someone was talking to her ambulance.

"Really, Ratchet, I…" The speaker wasn't the blue and pink motorcycle, like I'd half-expected, instead appeared to be a blue and pink female robot. Immediately, Lexi thought…_how awkward. She looks like that bike that kid rode here._

"Well, this is unexpected. Maybe I'm still dreaming after all," Lexi commented. In an instant, the robot became the blue and pink motorcycle.

"Arcee?" the boy called as he dashed into my garage.

"Would that be the name of your robot-bike?" Lexi replied. The kid skidded to a halt, staring at her, eyes even wider than before.

"Scrap." This came from the bike. Lexi smiled slightly and walked over to pat Ratchet's hood.

"More friends of yours, my mysterious friend?" she asked.

"Look, Alexan- uh, Lexi. I can explain everything," the boy said hastily.

"Is that so, Jack? And just what are you explaining?" Ratchet demanded.

"This should be interesting," Lexi drawled, leaning against the ambulance's side leisurely.

"um, yeah, well, you see, there was a toxic chemical in that ambulance," the kid improvised wildly. "That's why it was dumped here – or, well, it wasn't supposed to be dumped here, it was supposed to be dumped somewhere else, where people wouldn't get close to it. The chemical's making you hallucinate," he concluded. Lexi decided to give him credit for originality, but she'd be willing to bet that she wasn't dreaming AND hallucinating. Not at the same time. If she was doing either one, considering how real this felt…

"TOXIC CHEMICAL? DUMPED? Both of you slagging glitches, beat it!" Ratchet roared. Lexi grinned as she felt the vehicle vibrate with rage against her hip. Nope, not dreaming. Or hallucinating. Probably. The boy backed away, and the motorcycle revved her engine and sped out. On its own. The way Ratchet had moved himself onto her lift.

"As if that half-grown punk would know if I was hallucinating," she muttered. Then she turned back to the ambulance. "Ratchet! You're leaking again!" she exclaimed. She scowled and set to work patching this new leak.

"We're really going to have to see if you can't fix my internal repair systems," Ratchet grumbled. Lexi turned her scowl on him for a moment and shook her fist – which held a patch in it – at him.

"Well, if you'd tell me what they looked like and how they went back together, maybe I could see if I could fix them!" she snarled. "Now quit complaining and help me find where you're leaking from!"

"Somewhere near my left rear tire," the ambulance replied sullenly. Lexi nodded shortly and began searching for the source of the leak. Now there was just one question left.

"So, were you telling the truth about being an alien?"

**Well, that's it for chapter 3! I know it's short, but next Lexi meets Airachnid, so I figured I'd end the chapter here. Everyone feel free to leave reviews!**

**Oh, and check out my blog, Emily's Voice, at .com **


	4. Chapter 4

**Woo-hoo! I can't believe how much people are enjoying this story! I've gotten awesome reviews, and tons of people have read it! I'm really, really excited about this!**

**Um, anyway, calming down…I don't own anything but Lexi.**

Chapter 4 – I hate spiders

Lexi set to work on her ambulance again, wielding her blowtorch expertly as she patched him up. It was Monday. Usually she got a customer or two, but after nine o'clock, when no one had shown up, she returned to repairing Ratchet.

"How come you keep getting new cracks and tears?" she grumbled. "And how do the ones I've already welded shut keep _coming back open?_"

"My body is trying to heal itself," came the answer from her (apparently alien) talking ambulance. "But I think there's something wrong with my internal repair systems.

"No, really? You think?" the mechanic growled. She sighed; it still seemed like the dream she'd originally thought this whole talking-car thing was when he made comments like that. He'd told her he was an alien robot, that he was just stuck in his ambulance "alternate mode", and that his people – Cybertronians – were in a war. She shook her head, remembering, as she glanced at the strange insignia that shone on the ambulance's side, disguised from casual view by the red and white markings on the vehicle's side. "Well, then, maybe we should fix your internal repair systems, since I keep having to re-fix the rest of you," she suggested.

"You? Repair my internal systems? You might know your way around Earth cars, Lexi, but my systems are far beyond what you would find in the dashboard of one of your cars," the ambulance snapped. He was grumpy. He'd been grumpy a lot, especially with her various unwelcome guests, but he'd been civil to her so far. Until now. She frowned and set down her blowtorch so she could put her fists on her hips.

"You told me yourself your brain's basically a computer. I've tinkered with computers before, and loads of primitive Earth vehicles have electronic systems," she snapped, just as grumpy as the ambulance. "How hard could it be?" Without waiting for his answer, she put away her welding equipment and went to fetch the tools she'd need for working with electronics.

"Lexi, really, you won't be able to understand any of what-" Ratchet broke off when she opened the driver's door and jabbed the horn. It went off. Loudly. "Alexandra Bruner! Don't you dare-" he broke off again because Lexi had reached under the dash and grabbed the wires that she had half-guessed would be there. "What are you doing, human?" he demanded.

"Oh, so I'm 'human' now?" she muttered. "I'm trying to _fix_ you, you scrap yard reject! Now tell me what wires go to your internal repair systems, or so help me I'll rewire your horn to sound like that blue and pink robot who was in here yesterday! And I'll have her voice spouting every foul phrase I can think of! You'll get pulled over constantly for noise pollution! Now _tell me where that system is,_" the mechanic snarled. She was fed up with this stupid, stupid, scrapheap of a car. No car – no matter how smart – even an alien disguised as a car – was going to talk back to her. The whole vehicle seemed to sigh, settling on its axels. Then Ratchet rolled forward. Lexi positioned the lift arms and took the ambulance up.

Ratchet decided he'd just have her look for damage. At least then she wouldn't slag with anything important without him keeping tabs on her.

Several spliced wires, a stream of phrases that made Ratchet jolt slightly in disapproval, and two hours later, Lexi sighed and put down her tools.

"There. That's every single fragging wire in your scrapheap of a body," she said tiredly. Ratchet didn't answer for a moment.

"Good. Take a look at the seam you welded earlier," he ordered, as grumpy as ever. Lexi frowned.

"Why? Did it come open again?" she asked as she stalked around…and froze in place. The weld was…gone. Smooth metal had replaced the welded patch. "Oh, wow. I take it your internal repair system is working again?" she said dryly.

"I believe so. Perhaps…perhaps you are even more competent than I had realized," he added. She smirked. Then her smirk faded. She tilted her head, frowning slightly. Was that…a helicopter she heard?

"Ratchet? Is it just me, or do I hear a helicopter outside?" she asked. The ambulance rumbled to life.

"I'm picking up a Decepticon energy signature. Get in." The passenger side door opened on its own. Lexi climbed in, mystified. The door closed again on its own.

"Decepticon?" she repeated. Then she remembered. "Oh, right. Autobot vs. Decepticon. Wonderful." The sound of the helicopter outside faded. Lexi waited, tense. She knew somehow that the helicopter wasn't gone, and it wasn't S.A.F.'s chopper. Then the bay door behind her, at Ratchet's rear bumper, exploded inward. Ratchet grunted in pain as pieces of door sliced into his barely-repaired armored back end. Lexi stretched to see in the rearview mirror. Her garage door had just EXPLODED! But that suddenly seemed insignificant beside what was crouching to peer into the garage through the bay entrance.

It was big, it was ugly, it had a LOT of legs, it was made of metal…It had a vaguely human-like face…it had a LOT of legs…it looked like some kind of giant mutant spider.

"Airachnid," Ratchet growled.

"I hate spiders," Lexi whispered. "And I've seen a lot of spiders in my life, but that thing is _ugly_." Then the spider-thing smirked and reached a clawed hand toward Ratchet's ambulance form.

**Heh. Bit of a cliffhanger there, methinks. I've had requests for some action, so here it is, Airachnid attacking. Wondering why she's there? Let's just say the Decepticons have an interest in Ratchet and his new human friend. **

**Anyway, please R&R! Flames will be used to melt Decepticons!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow! Lotsa reviews and lots hits! I hope everyone is evjoying reading this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it. And now, for those of you who want to know when Lexi meets the other Autobots…not yet. Sorry. Cons first. :P**

**Anywho, I was going to put my diclaimer here, but I think Bulkhead stepped on it…Bulkhead, I needed that disclaimer!**

Chapter 5: Don't Step on a Crack

"Lexi, stay calm, and _hold on_," Ratchet ordered. The mechanic inhaled sharply, fully intending to ask what he was planning as that giant spider-bot-lady reached for them, when something that looked astonishingly like lasers shot out of the ambulance's grill and blew the garage wall to bits. The Con behind them gased as Ratchet revved his engine and shot through the opening in what was once Lexi's garage's sturdy back wall.

"Slagging Autobot scum!" Airachnid shrieked. Lexi twisted in her seat to look behind her just in time to see that big robotic arachnid creature transform into the lethal-looking chopper she'd seen when she first found Ratchet on the side of the road.

"Uh-oh," she whispered. Ratchet swerved over the small turnaround behind the garage and shot back toward the road, where his tires could help him drive faster. Airachnid overshot them as said road curved sharply. "What do we do now?" Lexi demanded.

"_I_ drive. And _I_ call for backup. _I_ pray to Primus that I can outpace a helicopter. _You_ sit tight and don't distract me," Ratchet snapped.

_::Ratchet to Prime. I need backup – now. I've got Airachnid on my rear bumper and a human in my cab!::_ the Autobot snapped over his comm.

_::Arcee to Ratchet. I'm headed your way. Turn back toward Jasper.::_

_::Prime to Ratchet. Bumblebee and I are at the base. We'll bridge to you. Send your coordinates.::_

_ ::Acknowledged.::_ Ratchet hit the brakes and spun around, tires and brakes squealing in protest. Lexi let out a yelp and grabbed the door handle and the armrest between the seats in fright.

"Ratchet! Why are we turning around?" she demanded. Airachnid overshot them again.

"Because Arcee is in Jasper, headed our way," the grumpy ambulance replied shortly.

"Arcee?" Lexi repeated, glancing nervously back at the chopper that was gaining on them – again.

"The blue and pink motorcycle from yesterday," Ratchet snapped.

"Oh." Lexi was silent for a moment. Then she asked, "How's a motorcycle going to help us against a helicopter that appears to have missiles?"

"Arcee's an Autobot, like me. You saw her robot form yesterday. That's how she'll help us," Ratchet growled. "Wait. Missiles?" Lexi gulped and nodded. Small bays on the chopper's front opened, and she could see the tips of the missiles inside. Suddenly, three of those missiles launched. Ratchet swerved hard enough to send Lexi's body thumping into the passenger door, then accelerated fast enough to have her thrown back against her seat. Two of the projectiles hit the pavement behind them and exploded, propelling the ambulance forward…into the third missile's path. It hit its target, sending ambulance and mechanic flying into the air. Lexi screamed as she saw the ground rushing up to meet them.

At the last second, just when the mechanic was positive she was about to die a horrible death by smashing into the desert, Ratchet's frame slammed to a halt in midair. The helicopter had somehow grown arms and caught them.

"It wouldn't do to have you offline like last time," Airachnid crowed triumphantly. "Now you'll be coming with me, medic." Ratchet started to transform, and Lexi squeaked as the ambulance's cab suddenly began shifting and closing in. "Uh-uh-uh, Autobot," the Decepticon female taunted. "Don't want to squish your human, do you?" The cab tilted sickeningly as one of Airachnid's hands – the one on Lexi's side of Ratchet's ambulance form – released its grip on the red and white vehicle. Almost delicately, she used one claw to force the passenger door open. She plucked the mechanic out of the Autobot's cab with an evil smirk. Lexi screamed again.

"Lexi!" Ratchet shouted. "Let her go, Decepticon!" Airachnid just chuckled.

"From this height? All right, Autobot, but I'm afraid your squishy friend will go – _squish_," she warned cruelly.

"No!" Ratchet snapped. "Put her down, Airachnid. Gently."

"I don't think you're really in a position to give orders," she tutted. Lexi twisted in the Decepticon's grip, trying to kick or hit those cruel metal claws. "Now, you'll come quietly, Autobot, and the human comes, too, or I'll crush her here and now." Ratchet was silent for a long moment. Lexi held her breath. Airachnid chuckled. "I knew you'd see it my way."

"I see you're sunk to a new low, Decepticreep," snarled a feminine voice. The blue and pink robot from the day before leaped at the half-transformed helicopter. Airachnid laughed and flew higher. Arcee transformed her hand into a gun.

"Don't shoot!" The order came from Ratchet.

"What?" Arcee stared up at him, dumbfounded. Lexi struggled in Airachnid's grip.

"Don't shoot! You might hit Lexi!" Ratchet snapped. Arcee scowled.

"What am I supposed to do?" she yelled back.

"Nothing," Ratchet replied grimly. "Absolutely nothing." Airachnid laughed again, cruelly.

"Very good, Autobot. Maybe I'll let you try to save the human's life – if you keep being good," she chuckled darkly. Lexi gulped. Then the metal claws around her tightened sharply. Lexi heard a soft crack. Her cry of pain was cut off as suddenly she couldn't feel her body. She tried to cry out, and only a ragged gasp emerged from her mouth. Inwardly, Lexi screamed again and again as her sight dimmed. Outwardly, she simply went limp as the Decepticon flew straight up, toward the dealy-looking warship that floated overhead, having dropped its cloaking.

"Ratchet!" Arcee yelled.

"Lexi!" Ratchet cried.

"Remember, Autobot, be good, and I'll let you save her – maybe even fix her up good as new," Airachnid taunted. Then Lexi was swamped by darkness.

**Well, what do you think? Sorry for the cliffhanger again, but it builds such wonderful suspense that I couldn't resist.**

**Let me know what you think! And this time, flames will be used to weld any Autobots that get hurt back together!**

**Plus check out my blog, Emily's Voice, for movie and book reviews – and dog-training tips!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, sorry to leave everyone hanging all week, but I haven't had time to type & post until now!**

**Ratchet threw a wrench and smashed my disclaimer, but Lexi rebuilt it for me. So, ha! I own only Lexi!**

Chapter 6:

Ratchet nearly collapsed when he transformed back to his bipedal form. He reached for Lexi's limp form, but the Decepticon femme held the injured – and probably half crushed – human away from him.

"You will do what we want first. Then you can tend to your pet," Airachnid sneered. Ratchet scowled at her, wishing he could dent her helm with one of his many wrenches, but knowing she would kill Lexi if he did. So he settled for scowling.

"If she dies before I finish whatever you want me to do, Primus help you, because I'll send so many viruses and glitches into you, your comrades, and your ship that you survive long enough to kill me," he growled. Airachnid smirked.

"She won't die…yet," she assured him, expression cruel. "Now, as to what we want you to do…down that corridor is a room with a dying mech inside. Repair him, and then you may tend the fleshling," she told him. Ratchet didn't understand.

"Why not have Knock Out fix your mech up?" the Autobot medic demanded. Airachnid's smirk shrank a little.

"Because Knock Out _is_ that mech, you imbecile!" she snapped. Ratchet nodded slowly. That would explain it.

"Why did you attack me before, then leave me?" he asked suddenly. "If your goal was to capture me, why blow me up and leave?" Not that he was complaining. He'd rather be blown up and left for dead than captured. But it didn't make sense.

"If you were too injured to even repair yourself, how would you be of any use to us?" Airachnid pointed out. "Now, go do your job, or I'll squish your squishy friend here." Ratchet went.

Hours later, at the Autobot base, the groundbridge opened. A signal bearing Ratchet's energy signature had appeared outside Jasper, and the Autobots had opened a bridge to those coordinates. Ratchet walked through the swirling green light, carrying the limp and battered form of the human who had repaired him in her garage.

"Ratchet! Are you all right?" Optimus Prime asked. Ratchet didn't answer. Instead, he bore his small burden to his work area and set about doing what he could. She would not be exactly the same, would not be fully human, not after the damage Airachnid had done, but the medic would do his best.

Lexi opened her eyes in an unfamiliar place. The walls yawned around her, and the ceiling was more than twice the height or a normal ceiling. Her first thought was, _I've shrunk._ Then she carefully sat up and looked around. No, she was still the same size The room she was in was just a hundred times bigger than anything a human would design.

With that thought, her gaze found the enormous red and white robot who was fiddling with some wires sticking out of a gigantic computer across the room. She blinked. Those marks on his armor…

"Ratchet?" she croaked. Speaking felt different than it had before…before…Lexi remembered Airachnid's grip tightening, remembered fighting to scream, to breathe. Then that horrible crack, that consuming agony…then darkness. The robot turned toward her.

"You're awake," he said, sounding relieved. His voice was the same voice that her talking ambulance had used. She blinked, and even that felt different. Come to think of it, just about everything felt different. "Take it easy; it will take time for you to adjust."

"Adjust to _what_, you old scrapheap?" Lexi demended. Surprisingly, Ratchet chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"It's good to see you still have your spirit," he said. "Unfortunately, Airachnid damaged many important parts of your body. I had to replace some of them with synthetic substitutes." What he was saying didn't sink in at first, but then, in a rush, it did.

"You replaced some of them? Some of _me_?" Lexi whispered.

"Your back was broken, Lexi, and many of your nerves and organs were damaged almost beyond hope. You nearly died. I did everything I could, andn it almost wasn't enough." He sounded rough, tired…worried. Lexi stared up at him.

"You _replaced my back and nerves and organs?_" she suddenly shrieked. He backed away, even though he was still most of the way across the room. "How could you…am I…am I even _human_ anymore?" she demanded, tears welling in her eyes. "Can I even go home – not that there's much left of my garage, since Airachnid tore up the bay door and you blasted the other wall?" Ratchet looked at her, blue optics troubled.

"I won't force you to stay here, Lexi. But you might want to stay. The Decepticons know you exist. They know you are…important…to me. They will target you again." He hesitated. "If you choose to remain here, we will take care of you. You can help me with the repairs my comrades seem to need constantly."

"Comrades?" Lexi repeated. Then she remembered. "Oh. You mean the Autobots?" He nodded. She took a deep breath. She would not cry. She would not. She was a grown woman and would deal with this. "All right. I'd like to meet them before I decide." Inside, Lexi couldn't believe she was actually considering this. Leave her shop, her garage, her home, her life? Live in an oversized base (she assumed there was a whole base) with a bunch of alien robots big enough to squish her if they accidentally stepped on her?

Ratchet approached cautiously, and held out his hand to her. Carefully, as though relearning her body – which she kind of was – she crawled from the hospital bed she was on (she made a mental note to ask where that had come from) and onto that huge metal hand that was surprisingly gentle as it lifted her.

"Ready?" Ratchet asked. Lexi inhaled deeply again.

"To meet a bunch of alien robots? No. But why not?" Lexi shrugged. It felt like her shoulders moved differently now. She pushed that to the back of her mind and concentrated on where Ratchet was carrying her. Then her eyes widened as Ratchet carried her through an enormous door into an enormous room ten times the size of the one they'd just been in. "Holy crap." Four ginormous alien robots were waiting for me. One was the blue and pink female one that had been with the boy on Sunday. One was about five times her size, with dark green armor. One was kind of cute, with yellow armor and little wing-things on his back like the doors of a car. And one…one was, in a word…she guessed 'leaderly' worked, if that was a real word. Red and blue didn't seem to describe his colors. He was scarlet and cobalt. And he was tall, slender, and held himself like he knew he was in control of the situation.

"Greetings, Alexandra Bruner. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. This is my team. You already know Ratchet, our medic. This is Bumblebee, our scout, and Bulkhead and Arcee." Bumblebee was the yellow one. Bulkhead was green, and Arcee was the one Lexi had seen before. She grinned.

"I know Arcee, too. She and the kid from the fast food place came by to say hi to Ratchet the other day," she said with forced cheerfulness.

"The kid from the fast food place has a name," said a half-familiar voice. "And his name is Jack." Lexi turned and saw a sort of balcony with three kids and two adults on it. One of the adults was S.A.F. The other was a woman who looked like Jack-from-the-fast-food-place, and she was standing next to Jack-from-the-fast-food-place. The other two kids were a Japanese girl and a very young American boy with pale skin and wild brown hair.

"Hi, I'm Miko. Bulkhead's my bot. That's Raf; he's with Bee. Who are you?" the Japanese girl asked. Lexi grinned.

"My name is Alexandra Bruner, but call me Lexi or there will be consequences." The mechanic grinned. "I'm kidding about the consequences. Mostly. Anyway, I'm Ratchet's human."

**Well, that's a wrap! I might revisit Lexi and the Prime verse later and explore exactly what changes Ratchet had to make to save her, but right now I'm starting a new fic for movieverse, (Desert Sunrise, which will feature T'Reilani's OC Riella) and am planning a couple for G1/comicverse. Please r&r! Flames will be used to roast s'mores!**


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